


Picnic Under the Moon

by candidshot



Series: stories from an alternate universe [7]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Black Panthers, Costume Party, Falling In Love, Halloween, Human!Alec, Izzy is a fairy, M/M, Magnus and Alec are mortals with a twist, Mythology References, Werecats, Werewolves, Witches, fairies exist, flirty!magnus, forest setting, old curse, supernatural!Magnus, unicorns exist, village setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-19 09:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12407604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candidshot/pseuds/candidshot
Summary: Alec had heard stories of the amber eyes creature loitering just beyond the village barrier. And time and time again his mother had warned him to stay away. But on a night veiled by silver, Alec jumped through the window of his bedroom and followed what seemed a flickering light of peacock blue.chap. 10/10: picnic under the moon





	1. the encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec meets the mysterious Magnus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More or less, this will be a fast story except for chaps 1 and 2 ~ which will be more about worlds building and some preliminary characterisation necessary for the progress of the story. They work better as separate chapters. 
> 
> XD

“Where were you? It’s way past after dark and I was going out of my wits with worry”.

“Sorry. I got lost while picking the herbs you asked for”.  
  
“Just how far did you go? You should have found them just behind the stone wall”.  
  
“Those weren’t enough so I went a just a bit further”.  
  
“Just how much further?” his mother asks with fear trembling in her voice, worry on her face, “you shouldn’t have gone that deep into the woods, Alec.  I told you, don’t pass the barrier”.  
  
Alec places the herbs on the counter and sits around the table, the night lamp ablaze in his eyes as he ponders.  
  
“It’s not like anything had happened”, he replies.  
  
His mother looks at him with concern in her eyes, placing the evening’s supper in front of him.  
  
“You almost sound disappointed”.  
  
Alec swallows the porridge without answering.  
  
She then sits across the chair from him in the tiny room. The fire sticks crackling to keep them warm. It’s a small village in which they live, and by that time of the night, the villagers have long retired to their own huts in fear of the great beast that legend speaks of to be living deep in the woods.  
  
“Have you ever seen him, Mum?”.  
  
“No”, but for centuries our ancestors have been on guard. It’s just not safe. That’s why there’s a barrier”.  
  
“But if you haven’t seen him, then how can you be so sure?”  
  
“Alec I---“  
  
“Don’t worry. I won’t cross the barrier again so you don’t have to worry about me getting captured by the ‘big bad’ cat loving whatever it is”.  
  
“Alec, dear---“  
  
“It’s my bedtime. Good night”.  
  
“Alec”, she calls after him as he packs his plates away, “promise me that---”, she stops, looking him over and Alec isn’t sure what she sees, but it’s almost like she knows. “Good night, hun. I’ll see you tomorrow”.  
  
“Good night, Mum”.  
  
It’s a silver night and Alec’s chest begins to tighten with fear and excitement all at once as he steps out from the foliage. The wind blows chilly when he sets foot on the path that leads to the so called mysterious den.

The full moon guides his steps across the barrier, and it was when he could no longer see the lit lamp from his bedroom that he hears the sound of howling drawing nigh.  
  
Alec gasps, his heart throbbing madly in his chest and he spins on his feet to run on back home deciding it’s best he heeds his mother’s warning. But even if that’s what he truly wants, it would do him no good when a pair of glowing sallow eyes like a cat’s and lips seemingly painted red by ripen berries are pulled back into a smile that’s just as beautiful as much as it sends chills down Alec’s spine - a boy of late teenage years with midnight black hair and who’s naked from the waist up and with a tiny cat on his shoulders, both leer at the timid Alec.

In a menacing voice the strange boys asks, “a lost mouse, are you?”.  
  
Alec takes one step backward, the high moon bright in his eyes as he tries to remember what Little Red Riding Hood had done.  But the strange creature whose name he did not yet know takes one step closer while smiling with a sort of conniving gesture - and Alec finds himself spellbound, and whether out of fear or some sort of sheer genuineness of wanting to know more about this fantastical mystery before him, Alec hears his own voice saying, “Yes. I heard you were looking for a cook”.  
  
Magnus’s eyes glow all the more gold as though his interest in the human had suddenly piqued, and so he wolfishly grins at Alec and tells him, "Follow me. Eating suddenly sounds interesting".  
  
And so, be it fear or genuine inquisitiveness, little Alec follows Magnus whose eyes seem to summon warm colours of baltic amber. 

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I've been playing with this idea of a story for a while now so, let's see how it goes :)


	2. the impossible cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec's curiosity seems greater than his fear as he meets Magnus deep deep in the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're picking up right where we left off in chap. 1.

The forest is quiet as darkness settles in after midnight. There are tiny whispers from the wind blowing between leaves as the path twists and stretches far to the beyond, and Magnus smirks while Alec clings to him as a frog suddenly leaps in front of them and scampers across the pathway.

“I feel offended”, Magnus says, the side of his mouth though hidden by the darkness is somewhat warmed by a smile.   

“Why would you be?”, Alec asks, still looking about like the forest is about to mob him.  
  
“Because you’re more scared of a tiny powerless toad than you are of me”.  
  
For the first time, Alec finds himself smiling - just a tiny pull of his lips that gradually seem to loosen the tightness from his earlier fear. And when he looks over and sees Magnus’s soft profile under the night light, Alec thinks that perhaps the people back in his village are all misinformed and that things aren’t as bad as they're told because, even though it’s just a half smile, it’s genuine with Magnus's eyes flashing as though glittered by the moon and with this, his entire face holds a beauty that’s ethereal and full of mystery with the way the light and shadow from the trees and the moon play across his face - the view really does portray this exquisiteness with the way his jawbones raised by his subtle smile gently tug on his lips----- and with all this glory, Alec realises that this person is more human than the monster the villagers perceive him to be in their story telling.

 _He’s enchanting,_ Alec thinks.  
  
“What’s your name?”  
  
“Alexander, but you can call me Alec. Whichever”.  
  
Magnus’s reply was only a contemplative hum.

In time as they trot far into the bush and farther from the village barrier. The forest gets noisier the deeper they venture by the sound of crickets and the wind passing through leaves and when suddenly the cat jumps from Magnus’s shoulder and lands on Alec's.  
  
“I think Alec will make us a fine dinner. Don’t you think so, Magnus?” The cat suddenly speaks, his face leering like the one from Alice in Wonderland.

Alec knows that the world carries all sorts of strange things but it had not occurred to him that one day he’d met a talking cat. And just as he catches his heart from popping from his chest out of surprise, Magnus laughs and that too is a bit conniving and screams dangerous--- but beyond that all, just in the crack in the corner of his eyes, there’s something soft and warm and playful.  
  
“Don’t tease him too much, Chairman”, Magnus turns to giggle. "By the way, who said anything about me needing a cook, little Alexander?”  
  
Alec almost trips over his own legs as he fumbles for an answer because, when he’d pledged his allegiance to this strange person, it was all done on a whim. One of the things fear does. He wraps his wool sweater tighter around him and swallows hard to rid himself of the fear that’s resurfacing. After all, he can’t truly say he doesn’t wish to be cursed with bad luck or perhaps even worse----- “Wouldn’t anyone like to have a personal cook?”, he replies in stutters. “And I’m not little. Just so you know, we do seem to be the same age”, he tries to put up a quarrel, walking step in step with Magnus. “And just how far do you live anyway?”  
  
“We’re going somewhere where you’ll have snakes crawling out of your ears”, Chairman answers him.

Magnus laughs, seeming to be enjoying Chairman's teasing of Alec. He then turns to face Alec while walking backwards like he knows the forest like the back of his hands. He then stops, his eyes glaring like gold diamonds. “Tell me, Alexander, what have they been telling you in that little human village of yours?”  
  
Alec timidly looks away. “To stay away because you’re dangerous”.  
  
“And yet, here you are offering to be his cook”, Chairman drawls.

However, before Alec can rebut, Magnus is leaning over and is backing him against the tall trunk of an old tree. “Do you find me dangerous, Alexander?”

Magnus’s eyes glow a delightful gleam as he leans in closer and begins to sniff between Alec’s shoulder blade and his neck like a wild creature tracking a prey. Alec starts to find it hard to breath, and he isn’t sure if it’s from fear or another impending danger when the tip of Magnus’s nose gently brushes across the bare skin on his collarbone, and just when Alec thinks he can't possibly suffocate from the pressure of not breathing anymore, he suddenly gasps in surprise then helplessly falls in a sort of sated state as his body slowly becomes warm with Magnus pressing against him, licking him as though tasting testing for something – his tongue down Alec’s neck and across his collarbone like a feline licking milk, leaving Alec’s legs buckling before he then pulls away and fixes his eyes on Alec waiting.  
  
“Why did you really seek me, Alexander?”, Magnus’s voice is very low but his mouth is still so near, breathing ticklishly onto Alec.  
  
Alec finds himself completely enchanted under a spell, leaving him tongue-tied and completely distracted by a peculiar feeling of divine temptation to unravel the mystery before him.  
  
Chairman scoffs, “Let’s just curse him like those silly villagers actually think we do or better yet, let’s curse then roast him”.  
  
“I should, shouldn’t I?”, is Magnus’s reply as he bends over  to sniff Alec's neck again. “You smell good”. And Alec doesn't notice his whereabouts until Magnus points towards a thick and tall patch of foliage saying, “welcome to your new home”.  
  
A shiver ran up Alec’s spine, and he swallows with the bizarre image of everything happening in this one night – him running away from home in search of the monster he's constantly warned to stay away from, and then when he finds the village myth (or truthfully, when the village myth finds him), Alec discovers him to be a freakishly beautiful boy around his own age with eyes that glow amber and blue-like magic dripping from his fingers – he also has a talking cat – and if that’s not enough then-----  
  
Now this… a huge rock reaching heights amongst the tallest of trees with thorn-like vines hanging over it in a camouflage - and smack in its middle, is the opening to a cave that’s dark and misty at the entrance, and to add thicker mystery to the unknown, beyond the eerie fog, there’s a faint emerald glow and murmurs of gibberish whispers coming from inside it.  
  
Alec blinks watching the glowing light reflect in Magnus’s eyes that are now of a beautiful brown, and this is also when Alec can clearly take full note of Magnus’s broad back and shoulders and his youthful face full of cheerful notes. Except, at a proper second glance, Magnus’s eyes are wide and ancient and seem to be loaded with stories of adventures stored away like forbidden books in the vault of an old dusty library.  
  
Alec swallows again and looks back behind him to the path stretching far, far away from home.

Will he ever be able to go back...

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, as I mentioned last time, Chaps 1 & 2 are definitely slow chapters but things will start speeding up from chap. 3.
> 
> Thanks for your expressed interest so far ^^


	3. reaching ama no iwato

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've finally reached Magnus's place.  
> Some mention of the curse.  
> They get ready for a party.  
> And let's meet a fairy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Ama no Iwato" in Japanese Mythology, is the name of the cave the Japanese Goddess of the Sun and the Universe, Amaterasu, locked herself in. 
> 
> This idea will play out more in later chapters!

One step at a time, Alec follows behind Magnus and Chairman. Fear starts to suffocate his senses and every bone in his feet weighs heavier with every step the closer he gets to the murmuring whispers hidden behind the fog – the unknown has his heart rolling and clashing hard and loud like thunderbolts on rampage.  
  
“I can hear it, you know”, says Magnus with a sinister grin prettily hanging around his lips.

Alec swallows yet again, trying hard with all his might to sound indifferent as he says, “hear what?” and silently thanks the heavens that he didn’t bite his tongue from the apparent clattering of his teeth.  
  
“I can even smell the fear in your veins”.

Alec doesn’t say a word, wishing there was a way to control the beating of his heart.  
  
It’s not long before they approach the entrance of the cave, and Alec holds his breath as they step into the emerald mist.  
  
“Watch your step”, Magnus warns, “otherwise, you might find yourself leaking blood or something”.  
  
Shivers run up and down Alec’s spine at the painful image forming in his mind. The inside of the cave does seem slippery. “Easier said than done when everything is cloaked in this mist”, he sighs, squinting to see better.  
  
“By the second, you’re proving to be as wimpy and useless as expected”, Chairman snaps, while expertly scurrying across the cold and slippery cave floor.  
  
“Oh forgive me Your Highness”, Alec retorts with pure sarcasm dripping in his voice. “Pardon me for being only human”.  
  
Magnus laughs at the never-ending banter between the two and just as instantly, he flicks his wrist and blue light emits from his fingers lighting the way behind him. “Follow the lights. We’re almost there… just a bit more around the corner”.  
  
Chairman scoffs looking back at Alec.  
  
“You two are already best-friends”, Magnus jesters at them.  
  
“No, thank you”, they both answer in chorus, Alec crunching up his nose as if he's being met with something unpleasant.  
  
Refusing to engage Chairman any further, Alec’s attention moves back to the moment they had entered the cave at which point he now notices that the fog as well as the emerald glow that were hovering only at the entrance had disappeared. The murmurs are gone too. And so he's looking behind him, wondering where they’d disappeared to.  
  
“What’s wrong now?” Chairman taunts again, “having second thoughts already? You do know it’s already too late to run back home and hide under your bed, right?”  
  
Alec rolls his eyes, “before, while outside, I heard voices and saw a green light but now--- what was that?”  
  
“Those were the fairies”. Chairman casually remarks.  
  
Alec half trips over a rock, for that's not the answer he’s expecting, “Fairies? Fairies like the ones in fairy tales?”  
  
Chairman ignores his question. “They protect the entrance”.  
  
Alec was still stuck in stupor. “Wait. Fairies really do exist?”, and when Magnus doesn’t deny it, Alec seriously begins to fear for his sanity, thinking he’s had too many discoveries for one night – too many unbelievable things and he needs many intervals of long moments to process these adventurous discoveries.  
  
“And you haven’t even seen half of this world as yet”, Magnus tells him as if he’s reading Alec’s mind. “Though, tell me, Alexander, what did you expect running off with an amber eye stranger and his talking cat?”. And when Alec doesn’t reply, Magnus says to him like a sort of warning. “I suggest you settle in quickly. You’re my property now”.  
  
Alec is just about to retort but nearly bites his tongue when as soon as he turns the corner, dazzles like diamonds full his eyes - millions of tiny azure lights give the illusion of the night sky forcing it’s way underground. Adjusting his sight, Alec awes at the glistening cave walls that give view to tall thick columns of crystallised rocks, and swinging in-between that, a meandering river surfaces and flows calmly before it dodges and sinks under the harden rocks of the cave floor. And if that isn’t enough to enchant, tilting his head back, Alec’s eyes follow to the roof from where water drips and trickles in sequence before splashing on his face----- but even greater than that incredibility, is the return of the emerald glow against the azure backdrop, and the soft fluttering of wings by his ear.  
  
Alec is too shocked to make sense of his life when he hears, “hello, I’m Izzy”.  
  
Alec’s eyes sparkle in a mix of awe, disbelief and utter madness, his voice unable to come out as the tiny green fairy hovers before him in mid-air.  
  
“Who is he?” Izzy asks, her wings prettily fluttering whilst observing Alec.  
  
“Magnus’s dinner”, Chairman supplies, his tone full of mischief.  
  
Izzy turns up her nose. “Who in their right mind would eat such a lovely human, um?”, she smiles at Alec, daintily fluttering her wings in front of him. “What’s your name, sweetie?”  
  
“Alec…”, he miraculously manages to answer amidst the chaos of his brain .  
  
Magnus, seemingly thrilled at Alec’s frantic state, quietly watches before saying to Izzy, “he offered to be my chef and I accepted”.  
  
“But you already have a chef”, she says as if he needs reminding.  
  
“And now I have two”, Magnus replies. “Besides, with the party tonight, Luke will appreciate the help”.  
  
“Party? Who’s party?”  
  
“Mine”, Magnus answers Alec before shoving him forward and just like that - like a gigantic catapult, Alec’s mind stretches to comprehend the strange new world unfolding before him.  
  
Since Alec left home following the flicker of blue light, he’s met and seen things that should only exist in legends. But he accepted that the world is bigger beyond the village walls and when he’d decided to follow Magnus, all he really expected was a simple unimpressive hideaway with perhaps a bonfire to keep them warm----- but deep in the forest he found himself beyond hollows of trees, and beyond those trees, hides a cave further hidden behind hanging vines of thorn, and deep within past that, following the path from Magnus’s blue magic and the azure glow in the roof of the cave - breathes another world------- A grand chamber with a castle-like structure made from limestone dazzles like thousands of fireflies, and Alec is beyond himself when a creature he has only heard about in folklore, descends from the sallow sky and lands in front of them - a unicorn.  
  
“At least try to breathe”, Magnus snickers and ushers Alec forward.  
  
“Impossible…” Alec stutters. “Unicorns don’t exist”.  
  
Magnus laughs good-naturedly. “So you believe in magic and me and Chairman talking and fairies, but not unicorns? Your logic gauge must be broken”.  
  
Still in a daze with his head tilting all the way back as he walks towards the massive gate, Alec still replies as though the world before him is nothing but a really vivid----. “This whole night is like a dream. It doesn’t need logic”.  
  
And just so, Alec continues to gape at the bizarre structure; tall and regal with walls painted in a yellow reflection. There are towers - round towers with peaks so high they disappear into the high rocks. He’s awed at the cascading waterfall that shimmers under the strangely coloured illumination, and he’s thinks it’s as majestic as it’s frightening. Walking farther in, a spring bridge hangs over a silently flowing river and he wonders if it’s the same one he saw earlier after entering the cave.  
  
“That’s the Reka River”, Magnus tells him. “You crossed it earlier. It goes all the way passing that little village of yours”.  
  
Alec can only hum when Magnus mounts the unicorn and nudges him to get on. And at this, Alec swallows with grave difficulty – conflicted if he’s to be excited or fear this world in which he shouldn’t be.  
  
“Behold your new abode”, Chairman tells him, unexpectedly jumping onto Alec’s shoulder, “Welcome to Aşık”.  
  
When the Unicorn named Rainbow takes off in the air towards the highest tower, Alec forgets to breathe.  
.

.

.

When they reach the highest tower, the wind blowing from somewhere pulls chill against Alec’s skin as he stands on the patio relishing in the orange coppery glow.  Back in his village, he would oftentimes play until sun down, but never before had he seen such a melancholy. Yet, he marvels and wonders from where this light comes. It’s strange to think this is also the sunset of sort. That can’t possibly be. And whilst it’s beautiful in its own sense, he catches a chill at how unnatural it is – grimly, it settles a sort of melancholy over everything.  
  
Moments later after he settles in Magnus’s grand chamber, he asks, “what is this light? It’s captivating but releases this overpowering grudge”.  
  
Magnus suddenly stands and so too does his yellow irises that seem to flash and reflect the burning sallow illumination all around them. The rays cast a ghastly shade on half of Magnus’s face, and Alec feels that familiar fear welling from deep inside of him again. The mystery surrounding Magnus radiates even stronger than it had when they’d met under the crystal moon. It feels dark and it being unknown causes Alec to shiver all the more when Magnus turns to face him with canine teeth a bit sharper than they were earlier - like he’s about to transform into a fierce creature.  
  
Alec swallows hard and holds on tightly to the patio railing when Magnus advances with eyes painfully grim. “It’s the curse”.  
  
“What curse?”  
  
“Me. Around you. Everything you see – this place, this light – what you’re looking at is what you’ll always see as long as the curse exists”.  
  
“I don’t understand”, Alec shakes his head, “what exactly is this curse?”  
  
Magnus sighs and backs away. “It’s time. Follow me and let’s get ready for the party”.  
  
Alec frowns and silently follows to where Magnus gestures to him to sit on the huge rug in front of a partially broken mirror. Alec gasps and finds it harder than ever to breathe when Magnus squats in front of him and keenly searches his eyes with a sort of sadness in his smile---  
  
"The curse", Magnus says, taking up a brush and a kit of colours, "this curse is one that started nearly two centuries ago".

Alec swallows.

A two hundred years curse doesn’t sound like a happy picnic story.

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ama no Iwata also means ‘Heavenly Rock Cave’. It’s believed to be enchanted as related to my notes up top.
> 
> Aşık actually means ‘Love’ in Turkish. At first, I wanted to name the cave this, but decided on Ama no Iwata instead. So here, Aşık is more like a state of being – something like, ‘the one in love’. This will also play out more later on :-) 
> 
> Yeah, thank you lots for the support and feedback so far XD


	4. a werecat's tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec learns about the curse while Magnus dresses him for a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now that we've past the boring bit of the story~ Happy Reading XD

“Don’t move”, Magnus orders, his eyes strangely profound as he extends one leg on each side of Alec and leans in waving a small brush in one hand. Sitting on the floor, made the walls seem to escalate into a high ceiling. Alec looks at the massive columns wrapped around with what seems to be heavy and dark red drapes. There’s a partially broken mirror on the far wall and a stylish dressing table carved from marble. For a grand chamber, it’s quite empty, Alec finds.  But it’s unexpectedly warm, very homely and Alec also finds the hovering scent of Magnus strangely relaxing with the way it pleasantly fills him.  
  
When Magnus leans forward with the brush dipped in white powder, Alec braces backward on his elbows quite warily.  
  
“What are you doing?”  
  
Magnus only follows him by scooting over closer. “I’m marking my property”, he casually remarks. “After all, you’re my Guest of Honour for the evening”.  
  
Without further ado, Magnus hauls the brush with white powder over Alec’s cheeks, painting in strokes that are unexpectedly gentle and precise.  
  
Alec holds his breath, feeling the warm air passing between them from Magnus’s breathing - and when Alec looks up at the puzzle before him - a boy seemingly in his late teens - a creature whose physique appears truly juvenile except, for those old eyes - eyes that tell a tale that this boy could be over a hundred years old, even.  
  
When Alec’s face becomes geisha white, Magnus draws thick black lines around the lids of the eyes. He then draws back in inspection of Alec’s face, before then saying, “I like your eyes”.  
  
Alec stammers with a shy, “thank you”, still unsure about the reason he’s being painted with the delicacy of a masterpiece.  
  
“It’s like a rainbow inside of them”, Magnus continues. “They somehow make me feel warm inside”.  
  
Alec blinks at the compliment but remains silent, feverishly trying to decipher exactly what Magnus would want from him – what would a supernatural being want from a human who ran away from home with nothing to offer. No wealth, no power, no magic, nothing special; he even lied about his cooking skill. Alec is even more baffled by the inkling that this person with magic and sometimes honey, sometimes amber eyes, genuinely fancies him.  
  
“Tilt your chin up a bit. It’s time for your lips”, Magnus tells, dipping another brush in red paint.  
  
Alec nods, fidgeting with his knuckles, finding it hard to breathe and keep focus while Magnus applies ruby red colouring to his lips.  
  
Then Alec finds himself asking again, “exactly, what’s this curse?”  
  
Magnus gives no indication of having heard him as he continues with his smooth movements, his forehead neatly knitted in concentration, or perhaps in consideration of the question.  
  
“Why do you think we were out in the woods?” Magnus returns a question.  
  
“Hunting, I guess”.  
  
“Yes. More like, we were gathering food. Before, long ago I used to be able to use magic to get food but lately, for a few decades now, my magic is weakening and as you can see, nothing can grow here”.  
  
“How is that connected to a curse?”  
  
“Don’t be impatient”.  
  
“I just…”, Alec looks away as he shyly replies, “I just want to know more about you”.  
  
Smiling as though intrigued, Magnus asks, “And what will you do when you know, uhm?”  
  
Alec goes silent. Because that’s precisely what he too wants to know.  
  
“The stories you hear in your village aren’t entirely myths”, Magnus continues. “For hundreds of years, werecats were known as demi-gods. Creatures of supernatural strength, fast healing and slow aging and shapeshifting. But not immortal”.  
  
Alec gulps. Is this what he’s getting involved in?  
  
“They lived on the surface, in your world”, Magnus carries on. “At first, their existence was a secret and they masqueraded as humans. But the Chief werecat, a leopard, fell in love with a human maiden from a village. In time, she gave birth to a boy, and you could say that was the start of a bloody history – the start of the curse".  Alec nods trying his best to follow the story. "Not long after, the woman and the Chief’s fear was soon realised as the child grew older and started to show signs of things unnatural to the human world. Then one full moon, his demi-god powers overcame his human existence and in front a village crowd while playing around a bonfire - he suddenly shapeshifted into a black panther.  
  
Magnus pauses and takes in his artwork on Alec’s face. And there it is again, Alec spots - that grimness that heavily shadows the man before him.  
  
“That night, the boy, age seven at the time –“, Magnus ruefully relays, “confused by what was happening to him, suddenly loses his sense of self and pranced on the villagers”.  
  
Alec feels himself stiffening at the horrendous imagery forming in his head, and for a quick second, he wonders if he should dare venture further into the story. But he bites his tongue and presses on. “Then what happened?”  
  
“After his attack, he lost consciousness. It was then his mother feared for his life and attempted to flee to the forest with him. But the villagers were faster and with torches and spears, they went after them. By the time his father reached the scene, the boy was badly beaten, but he was still alive. The mother, however, had already a spear stuck in her heart. She died with her body hanging over her child, protecting him until her bitter end”.  
  
Alec couldn’t stop himself from shivering, causing the red colouring on his lips to smudge. Magnus frowns, but silently cleans and reapplies a thick coating.  
  
“After he’d taken the child to a hut in the deepest parts of the forest and treated him, the boy did survive but the Chief soon grew furious and sought revenge for the death of his Beloved. So every full moon after that incident, he would lead an attack on the village. This happened for almost half a century. The villagers, living in fear, asked a witch they all called, Seelie, for help. Seelie wielded a magic powerful enough to turn three-quarters of the werecats into stone during an attack that lasted till sunrise, and the rest, she banished to a deep corner where the sun never sets, and the moon will never shine and time almost never seems to pass by. That thick fog that you saw at the entrance, that’s also because of the curse keeping everything in”.  
  
Alec is watching the sudden tightness in Magnus’s jaw, his eyes spiralling with fury. “But you can obviously leave, so why don’t you?”  
  
“Well the first thing is that the curse is only lifted on a full moon – meaning, we can only leave this place on a full moon”.  
  
“And the second?”  
  
“Once the full moon passes, being turned into stone is what will happen if caught on the outside. That’s what annihilated the rest of the werecats. Some did leave. But very naively so. They crumbled into stone at the first ray of the sun”.  
  
Alec thinks that if he hadn’t met Magnus, this seemingly fragile creature, though with a tough front, then he would rejoice at the witch’s doing and gladly chants, ‘serve them right’ for their atrocity upon the villagers.  
  
Though, for the moment, Alec silently ponders trying to sort and rationalise all the jumbled pieces of the puzzle before he asks, “so everyone else is dead? They still left the cave knowing the repercussion if they did?”  
  
Magnus sighs, as though deciding how best to answer then says, “Asik may seem like a wonderland with magic of its own, but it’s a prison. It’s only bearable thanks to my magic and Izzy and the fairies’ help. But as it were, not everyone was a coward as I am now – someone who fears taking his own life”.  
  
Alec takes a very long breath, a lump in his throat he swallows and asks, “And where’s this witch now?”  
  
Magnus sighs again, heavy with bitterness. “It’s been over a century. She’s long dead”.  
  
“But shouldn’t that have broken the curse?”  
  
Magnus’s voice falls hollow in the grand space of the chamber when he says, “there’s a reason why Sellie was more than happy to help the humans. She was in love with the Chief. But then he rejected her and fell in love with a human. So naturally, she was heartbroken and cast the curse out of revenge – one that’s not broken with time or whether or not she lives or dies. That’s how vengeful she was”.  
  
“Then how can this curse be broken?” Alec asks.  
  
Magnus shares a strange smile with him - hopelessness overshadowing any light, therein.  But the manner in which he presses his lips together doesn’t detract from their ripeness of drawing Alec’s gaze to fit on them like the alluring sweetness of honey luring in a bee. Alec suddenly wonders how they would feel if pressed against his in a kiss - perhaps in a form of assurance that he’s not alone, that  _he’s_  here with him now.  
  
“You’ll need to comb your hair back”, Magnus remarks instead, crawling across to the dressing table to grab a brush.  
  
Alec frowns, but decides it’s best to leave the cliffhanger of the story for now. “Why? I like my hair down”.  
  
Magnus shares a genuine smile this time, “Luke won’t let you in the kitchen otherwise.  He’s a bit of a clean freak”.  
  
“Who’s Luke?”  
  
“He’s a werecat like me--- a werewolf to be exact. So he's also a castaway banished to this place where the sun never sets, and the moon will never shine and time almost never seems to pass. You’ll meet him and the others later”.  
  
Alec is still trying to pack and rearrange everything he’s so far learned in this one night.  
  
“Okay, it’s done”, Magnus announces, pointing towards the mirror for Alec to see. “Get changed into that”, he says, pointing to a full white cook’s uniform with a matching hat.  
  
Alec’s blanches. “Is it a costume party?”  
  
“You can say that. And when you see the uncanny guests, you’ll be grateful to fit in”.  
  
“And what will you be?”  
  
Magnus grins, his pupils now shining a warm honey brown shade under the light. “I’m already plenty phenomenal as I am”.  
  
Alec rolls his eyes at him and finds himself smiling, but not without the dizziness of question marks beeping in his head. He asked one question and now he has so many more.  
  
Magnus is a terrible storyteller, he thinks.  
  
A second later, fully dressed in the splitting image of a bloody chef, Alec counts to ten before he asks, “Magnus, this boy, the son of the Chief, did he also d---”.  
  
Alec stops talking when Magnus leans forward and once again traps him between himself and the rug, his index finger covers Alec’s mouth as if in warning. “If you insist on using your mouth so much, Alexander”, he says with a devilish wink, “then I must insist that you use it for something else that’s far more appealing”.  
  
Alec forgets his question for the time being.

But really, why hadn’t he made the connection?

In time, he’ll wish he had.

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not to exaggerate but, for this kind of story, your feedback would make my night and day :)


	5. a birthday halloween party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus is having a birthday party and Alec is in for a treat.  
> More hints about the curse.

Alec finds himself being led to another massive chamber with its walls and ceiling a marvellous dazzle from the lustre of yellow torch lights and peacock blue glitters. Alec is still trying to understand how everything fits into what seems from the outside, just a normal cave that’s not even easily noticeable.  
  
“Sit there”, Magnus commands of him, taking his own seat at the other far end of the table that seems to stretch a mile ahead of Alec. But the distance gives Alec the chance to see everyone else as pairs of inquisitive eyes stare him down like he’s a birthday cake.  
  
He can suddenly hear his heart beating loudly in nervous loud poundings.

“You look very convincing, Alec”, a young lady of long black hair, bright eyes and red lips walks up to him smiling.

It takes Alec a near full minute to realise she’s, “Izzy?”

“Yup”, she smiles, her lips full and pretty, but more than anything, Alec likes her warm company. It must be the kindness of a fairy.

“You’re big now”, he says, eyes wide in awe.

She laughs flinging her head back. “No. Not big. I’m my human size. It’s just really easier getting around in that tiny version you met earlier”. She then turns to the small gathering of people, “You can pretty much say we’re all shapeshifters of sorts”.  
  
Aside from Izzy, Magnus and Chairman, everyone else is a complete stranger – for starters, there’s another fairy looking young lady with short curly hair standing near to Izzy and beside her, a man with glowing green eyes and sharp canines, and if that isn’t too much for a normal human like Alec to take in all at once, then, sitting closest to Magnus is a man with short horns and next to him, a woman with---- she seems normal but as Alec’s about to sigh in relief, he notices the way in which she’s watching him and it causes him to constantly fidget.

Alec shifts his gaze and catches Magnus staring at him – as if he too, finds something compelling in Alec. “By all means, do allow yourself to breathe, Alexander”.

Alec knows that too but he’s too tongue-tied and feverishly trying to keep his head from swelling from the overdose of impossible things.  
  
Since meeting Magnus, Alec has been feeling like another version of Alice in Wonderland. Or perhaps, this is all his very own fairy tale. And if this is the case, then he might as well allow himself to create whatever his mind dreams. So he pinches himself, yelps at the pain, swallows hard and looks back down the far end of the table meeting gaze with Magnus whose eyes seem to flicker between brown and amber – his entire face handsomely smug and charming in every expression he makes.  
  
“Magnus, who’s your new friend?”, the man to his left asks. “He smells to my liking”.  
  
At this, Magnus’s eyes suddenly turn solid amber. “Touch my property, Ragnor--- and you won’t have nose to smell”.  
  
But this Ragnor only haughtily laughs and is obviously unfazed, adjusting the oversized cloak on him.  
  
“Don’t be so stingy”, says the woman beside him, leaning over against the table and is studying Alec even more intensely from head to toe. “Why did you bring him here?”.  
  
“You too Catarina, don’t get too friendly”, though his threat falls light and almost indifferent as he swirls around the rich red liquid in his glass mug. “But if you insist on being annoying about it, then I’ll tell you”. He takes a sip eyeing Alec over the brim of the mug then says, “I haven’t decided yet. But for now, he’s my bed partner”.  
  
Alec blushes in abject shyness hearing those words from Magnus’s mouth, and perhaps if he isn't already taken aback with everything, then he almost faints from embarrassment when Izzy suddenly squeals, turning to the fairy beside her and jumping as though for glee. Izzy and Maia are so excited that their sudden transformation back into tiny fairies fluttering around surprises Alec so much that he spews berry wine all over his face and down his pure white attire, staining it in deep mauve and red blotches leaving him to do nothing more than to lick his lips as the sweet wetness dribbles down his painted white face - much to Magnus’s delight with the way he’s hungrily watching him.  
  
“My bloody chef is proving to be wonderful entertainment”, he snickers, his whole face genuinely cheerful.  
  
The whole room rings in a chatter of intrigue and excitement. However, such jolliness and boisterous inquisitiveness couldn’t merely be from Magnus bringing back a human and dressing him like a bloody chef. No. There has to be something else that triggered everyone’s sudden excitement----- as if they’d all been waiting for this single moment for Alec to appear.  
  
“How did you do it, Magnus?” Ragnor readily asks, sitting on the edge of the table in front of Alec, staring him up and down – more so than before.  
  
Alec blanches at first, then blankly stares all the way down at Magnus who’s still grinning at him.  
  
“How did you get him to follow you so willingly?”, Catarina adds, looking at Alec with eyes that seem to sparkle blue. “You even did his makeup. And I can see how much attention you paid to his lips”, she smirks.  
  
Alec blushes, feeling the tip of his ears heating and must already be a crimson hue like proper ripen strawberries.  
  
“Then, perhaps it won’t be long before the curse is broken”, Luke, the man with green eyes more casually says though more to himself. But Alec catches it and sees the opportunity to pick back up the story from where Magnus so inconveniently ended it earlier in the grand chamber.  
  
“How can the curse be broken?”  
  
“How much do you know?” Luke returns, wiping a bowl with a piece of cloth before dishing Alec some cut of meat and filling a new serving of fruit wine.  
  
Alec thanks him with a nod. “Magnus says the curse only breaks for a while during a full moon and that this place is somewhat liveable thanks to magic.  But what I really want to know is how can this curse be broken”.  
  
Ragnor gives him this look. It’s the same one he sees in Magnus’s eyes sometimes in the short time they've met – the way they look at Alec like he’s some sort of saviour – eyes that seem all hopeful yet they withhold something that's seemingly the final piece of the puzzle that can only be unriddled by Alec, himself. “Have you ever been in love?”

Alec shakes his head. “No”, confused with what that has to do with anything. 

“Then, hurry up and fall”.

Alec has no idea what that means.

No one else says anything but it’s impossible for Alec to miss the looks headed his way. They’re warm and gentle but at the same time, those eyes are also hurried, urging him to do something he himself doesn’t yet understand, and this uncertainty, is the scariest of all things he’s witnessed since entering Asik.

He’s about to fall into a melancholy mood when all of a sudden, a hearty rhythm of laughter and festivities pierces through the heavy air – and like the minutes from before didn’t happen, all attention is turned to the food and drinks on the table and to Izzy and Maia back to their human size and are playing the charming musical chime of triangles when all at once, Alec’s eyes widen with interest and apprehension when all attention turn on him and Chairman announces with alacrity, “it’s time for Magnus’s celebratory dance”.  
  
Alec gulps the last of his fruit wine and reaches for another. He’s suddenly becoming nervous under Magnus’s pointed stare that’s somewhere between hunger and being savoury. Magnus, with his legs crossed, arms majestically sprawled along the wooden handle of his red velvet chair sends Alec’s heart throbbing wildly with the salivating look he's giving him.  
  
And just like that, unblinkingly, Magnus fluidly moves towards him all dapper, and in no time is standing in front of him, his hand outstretched in gesture for Alec to take and become his for them to truly dance.  
  
“I promise I won’t scratch”, Magnus teases with the source of untruth swirling in his grin. “I’m a friendly kitten”.  
  
“I doubt there are any kittens your size”, Alec mumbles, though he can feel his resolve softening.  
  
“Use your imagination, Alexander. I promise, I’ll be gentle”, he winks. Alec swallows again, for bit by bit, Magnus is starting to feel like his guilty pleasure. “Seems like I’ll just have to take what I want when it comes to you”, Magnus teases with wet lips as he takes Alec’s hands in his. “After all, it’s my birthday”.  
  
‘Birthday’ suddenly has Alec’s attention but before he can respond, Magnus already has him in the middle of the chamber – and Alec swears he feels his feet lifting off the ground when he instantly finds himself as though in the centre of an entirely new universe with Magnus closely pressed against him – one hand still in his palm, and the other one comfortably resting on his shoulder. Alec holds his breath, convinced that all the blood in his body is pulsating into one massive gush under Magnus’s fond study and strong yet dainty hold of him.  
  
The glowing hall and glittering ceiling create an ethereal backdrop and soon, Alec doesn’t know what it is, but there’s this knocking in his chest and the beating of his heart is hammering in his ears. His knees are on the verge of buckling when Magnus, though only an inch or so shorter than him, leans in even further and presses his cheek against Alec’s chest as if he’s listening in.  
  
Everything starts to happen in a swirl of dizziness with the Zen sound of bamboo flutes and the harmonica being played by Catarina and Ragnor joins Izzy and Maia's triangle chime and relaxes Alec’s consciousness like the whisper of a waterfall. It begins to feel good – so good that Alec suddenly fears that if a finger should snap then he’ll wake up back to the reality of his bedroom in his quiet village and this whole night of grandeur and prettiness would only be a dream. 

So all the more, to capture this very moment, Alec is so utterly enchanted swaying his limbs and moving in every possible way Magnus leads him. The momentum of the musical fills him, and Alec follows Magnus’s lead with every step, thinking all the while, that even Amaterasu, that Goddess who supposedly locked herself away in the deepest cave out of anger, would surely take delight at the blissfulness blossoming between them, before her eyes.  
  
Alec closes his eyes, smiles and resigns himself to live the madness of his fairy tale for as long as his mind can imagine.  
  
Just this once, he’ll allow this strange idea of comfort.

That’s all he truly intends.  
  
But there’s the knocking in his chest again, knocks that are coming louder and faster than he can figure them out--- and if that’s not enough to preoccupy his thoughts, then comes along a voice stealthily strolling into his ears. It’s low – very low and private but it approaches Alec like a compulsion and sends warm chills of an unknown excitement that dances across his skin and soon---- it leads to a never-ending  _thump thump lub-dub_  of his heart.  
  
In the beginning;

Alec may have indeed been Magnus’s prisoner.

But now;

Just mere hours after meeting - in that moment when Alec’s eyes dip to meet Magnus’s lips that are moving in a private serenade in the hollow of his neck, Alec feels that already, he has truly become trapped in Magnus’s eyes and their impossible night.

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos / comments are appreciated ^^


	6. whispers of a waterfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec sleeps in Magnus's bed. They chat and flirt and get to know each other more.  
> They go swimming and Alec finds Magnus to be as melancholy as he's beautiful.

“You’ll sleep in my room”.

“And where will you go?” Alec asks a bit perplexed.  
  
Magnus throws him a mischievous grin. “On the right side of the bed, of course. Unless, you rather me closer to the middle or on top of you”.  
  
The party has long since ended and it’s now sleep time. Alec fits himself to the left of the bed, fretfully looking into the high ceiling. Magnus settles in on his right.  
  
“I can sleep on the floor, if you wish”, he says fidgeting with the hem of a thick wool cover pulled all the way up to his throat.  
  
Magnus rolls over on his side and perches on his elbow, a smirk around his lips and mystery lurks in his eyes. “If I’d wished it so, you would have been there already”, he softly smiles. “I promise, I won’t lay a paw on you”. But even that is hard to believe with the way he's leaning over close to Alec and is puffing warm breaths that airy against his skin. “But if you want me to, then of course, I’ll take the treat”.  
  
Alec gapes a little at the insinuation and he ends up biting his lower lip as punishment for even considering the strange pleasure of Magnus’s eyes fully watching over him like a predator enjoying playtime with his prey.  
  
Though after what seems like hours, Alec is starting to feel drained with everything that has been happening to him - especially now that he’s extremely conscious of Magnus’s every move - and so eventually, the mental exhaustion lulls him into what is perhaps one of his longest and deepest sleeps.  
  
By the time he wakes up, he’s alone, huddling on the right side of the bed. And before his eyes can make peace with the light, Chairman jumps on him. “How much longer do you plan on sleeping in Magnus’s bed?”  
  
Alec blinks and frowns. “You’re really not the first thing I wish to see after waking up”.  
  
“Well, sorry to disappoint you”, Chairman scoffs. “But you should count your good fortune”.  
  
Alec sighs. "If this is fortune then I truly don't wish to see my misfortune. Where’s Magnus?”  
  
“In the courtyard. He not so long ago returned from his rock climbing. You would be amazed at just how huge this place is”.  
  
Alec goes to the balcony overlooking the courtyard scenery and indeed, Magnus is there stretching by the waterfall. Alec watches him for a moment, preoccupied with Magnus’s frown and troubled demeanour etched in every move he makes. His lonesome expression says his mind is far gone to a place Alec wonders if he can ever reach.  
  
It’s then that Alec remembers----  
  
“Chairman, tell me more about the curse”.

However, before Chairman could open his mouth, Magnus is back in his chamber, naked from the waist up. His hair is stark black, falling wet against his skin that’s glistening with sweat that highlights the beauty of his perfectly toned body. Magnus truly is perhaps the most beautiful lifeform Alec has ever seen, and it’s causing him to grow pale scarlet in the face.  
  
“Chairman, Catarina needs you”, and just like that, without a word, Chairman leaves.  
  
Looking at Magnus’s bare form under the light, Alec is suddenly frightened at seeing two huge scars on Magnus’s lower back. A part of him thinks its best he leaves the matter and ends his prying but being that Magnus had already divulged all that information about the curse and his people’s history, one extra question shouldn’t cause much of any arm.  
  
“What happened to your back?” he asks.  
  
He notes Magnus’s subtle hesitation and how he turns away and instantly dresses himself before remarking, “a family heirloom, you could say”.  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
And perhaps this is the first time Alec is seeing the werecat showing signs of being tamed – his first time seeing him defenceless and he's making no effort to hide it. “Well it’s as I said. An heirloom. It’s a reminder of my family history”.  
  
Alec swallows, recalling the gruesome tale Magnus had told him and he winces at a sudden burn building in his chest. Magnus had told him the story about the curse but he hadn’t mentioned anything about how he ended up in the cave. He'd met a few others at the party earlier but where's everyone else? Where's Magnus's family? Did they also try to escape? Did the curse affect all generations, present and future? Is that why Magnus is still trapped in Asik? Is that what he means by ‘heirloom’?

But the answers to these questions continue to elude Alec - even though everything has already come out in plain sight.  
  
So he just stands there, watching Magnus and not knowing what to say. But what’s certain is that, he knows he wants to comfort this man somehow. So he swallows and takes two steps forward and reaches out his hands; touching, feeling, tracing the scars along Magnus’s lower back and when Magnus shivers under his touch, Alec lightly jumps in surprise but that doesn’t stop him from continuing.  
  
“Tell me what happened”, Alec asks again, needing a less vague answer.  
  
Magnus’s eyes search his for a while when all of a sudden, he pinches Alec's nose. “Weren’t you listening to anything I told you prior?”  
  
Alec is blank.  
  
“I told you. There was an attack and I killed my mother”.  
  
Alec blanches, his voice catches in this throat. It’s true that he has been so caught up in everything at full speed that he hasn’t been able to properly decipher the fullness of Magnus’s story. However, it doesn’t take him long to fit the pieces and very slowly, his eyes widen in horror and incomprehension.  
  
“Magnus, how old are you?”  
  
“If you’ve finally figured it out, then do the calculation”.  
  
Far before he notices, Alec’s fingers are carefully sweeping through Magnus’s wet hair. And he’s massaging Magnus’s scalp the same way his mother would do his whenever he’s feeling down. He feels good and useful when he sees sign that his gentle touch is working on the troubled person before him.  
  
He finds himself smiling when Magnus closes his eyes and the deep frown marking his forehead gradually disappears. He increases his comforting action while watching the tension along Magnus’s jaws loosen as he gently leans into Alec. By instinct, Alec moves closer and cuddles, his fingers still moving soothingly at Magnus’s nape, and in the blink of an eye, Alec kisses him frank on the lips – lips that always seem stained with red berries and sweetness - it's only the tiniest of touch. Merely the brush of Magnus’s lips against his own. Merely a light sweeping of tongue against tongue. And merely the soft taste of Magnus’s mouth pleasantly flavouring his own. Yet, Alec has an inkling that very long after when their faces go chill, that he'll still feel the warmness of Magnus’s kiss.  
  
Very wantonly, Alec is being bewitched by that slow enjoyment in which Magnus is eating his lips.  
  
When the moment passes, they spend the rest of the time together.  With Magnus not more than a footstep in front of him, Alec explores the far reaches of Asik.  
  
Guided along the flow of the river, Alec is taken to yet another sphere of this mystical under-land. A place where turquoise spring water cascades in smoothness down a breath-taking waterfall and gathers in a deep pool that doesn’t seem to overflow.  
  
Alec grins, and can’t stop himself from laughing in a happiness that’s soaring too high to control. The sound of water running carries and echoes and makes the already unbelievable place, an even loftier fantasy.  
  
He dips his toes into the water and splashes about for a bit, hesitating, feeling a bit of shyness creeping up his cheeks when he turns to witness Magnus standing in nothing but his under rag.  
  
“This water is best for swimming”, Magnus coyly supplies, watching Alec watch him to the very moment he turns and makes a dive that’s as silent as a leaf landing on water.  
  
Alec is still at a pause, taking in the alluring figure floating in the pool like a water deity----- and in this single moment, Alec sees a greater fondness overshadowing Magnus’s melancholy.  
  
Alec removes his clothing as well and submerges himself at the very edge of the pool, holding on to a nearby rock.  
  
Hearing the splash of water, Magnus turns his attention to him. “Come here”, he says in a voice that’s low and devious. “The water on this side is much better”.  
  
Alec wrinkles his nose deciding he won’t be tricked further by the werecat’s allure. “This place may be all sorts of magic but, I doubt the water three strokes away will be any different”.  
  
Magnus laughs and swoops over closer. “Still the unbeliever, I see”.  
  
Then it happens.  
  
As fast as Alec blinks, Magnus submerges himself under the greenness, and what Alec knows next are that hands are crawling up his naked legs, pulling at his under-cloths before the same hands grip him around his waist - wet palms against his wet skin as Magnus hugs around him like a bow tied around an offering.  
  
“I like your lips too”, Magnus drawls, tracing the outer flap of Alec’s lips with his tongue. “Alexander, how do you feel about me?” he asks, a hint of desperation in his voice.  
  
Alec stumbles back, rimming the edge of the pool, the waterfall drumming in his ears makes him doubt he heard well. But it’s the way Magnus is looking at him like he really did ask the question and is awaiting an answer - eyes that shine so bright like the moon they met under – hopeful yet reserved eyes, almost like they’d resigned themselves to spend an eternity in loneliness until one day – a day so far away that Alec can’t even start to imagine when – the light in those eyes will finally pale and eventually disappear.  
  
And then, very slowly then all at once, it starts to feel as though time is moving in slow motion and in that instant, Alec holds Magnus close and is pleasantly kissing him – clumsy and impatient kisses that soon mellow with the way Magnus’s lips move across his like an enchanted well granting a wish and muting everything around them - save for the hot soft sounds of Magnus’s lips in his mouth. 

At the moment, Magnus seems to be the only existence Alec can think about.  
  
And very long after he releases Magnus, Alec’s heart thumps and thumps, though, in an unrealised longing.  
  
“How do I make you feel?” Magnus asks once more when Alec opens his eyes to see Magnus pleasantly looking at him.  
  
Alec swallows, for never can he be sure about this feeling he has never experienced before – this burning compelling feeling.  
  
But from what Alec has read in his storybooks, this magic of what he feels: it feels a lot like love.  
  
“Magnus…”, he instead calls in a seriousness that surpasses mere curiosity. “How can the curse be broken?”  
  
Magnus leans over and kisses his forehead before replying, “you’ve been here for merely a short while and already you want decades of history?”  
  
“At least tell me before I leave”. And he doesn’t miss the way Magnus suddenly tenses up. “I am worried about my mother. She must have gone crazy by now with me gone so suddenly”.  
  
Though, when Alec notices the leeching gloom shadowing Magnus again, a part of him wishes he didn’t need to leave. But while he wholeheartedly believes that there must exists something he can and should do for Magnus… that the heavens must have its reasons for bringing them along the same path, in the end, he has a home to return to.  
  
“So, you’ll leave…”, Magnus mumbles, the look of dejection in his eyes breaks Alec’s heart.  
  
Alec tries to suppress his guilt by swallowing. “I have to. But for sure I’ll be back”.  
  
Without saying anything else, Magnus concedes to let him go. Because love can’t be selfish nor can it be pitiful.  
  
At least not the love Magnus searches for. A love like that won’t save him. A love born from his consequences is hardly enough to break the curse. And so he can’t just tell Alec to love him back like it’s his duty. He can’t just give Alec this responsibility like loving him is a means to an end because, it’s not.

In any case, that sort of cheapness would never work.  

Plainly put;

Magnus can’t tell Alec that to break the curse, someone has to love him for who and what he is - a true, pure and unreserved love that will last for all their eternity.

And that, with all his heart, Magnus wishes it to be him. 

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos/feedback. Much appreciated ^^


	7. not even sepia memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec prepares to leave Asia and return home.  
> And Magnus is still keeping a secret - a very important one.

There’s not a single thing nor is there a single moment that Alec can reward for this growing lavishness of affection he feels for Magnus. Although, looking back, perhaps that first time when they met under the moon, is a very good place to start.

But even so, Alec is baffled by the emotions flowing through him like a spring; fresh, pure and thrillingly enchanting. But it’s also a bit too fast and it's confusing him.  

They are back from the waterfall and are awkwardly loitering to pass time – Alec’s leaving is visibly not a favourite topic of conversation. Instead, Alec is watching Magnus who’s sprawled across the rug, staring into the ceiling and he’s obviously absentminded. The whole place seems to hammer with a thick silence making it that all Alec hears is the occasional sound of water dripping, trickling and flowing betwixt a few rocks and columns.

The sallow illumination pours in from the outside and bathes over Magnus in his grand chamber. And perhaps it's the yellow light but, Magnus is looking at least three-folds paler than moments prior when he’d genuinely seemed happy.  
  
“It’s almost time”, Magnus breaks the silence. “If you’re determined to leave then you must do so before sunrise”.  
  
“I’m not really in a rush”.  
  
“The curse. It will lock the werecats inside by the first sun light”. He pauses and takes a deep breath. “And it’ll stay that way until the next full moon”.  
  
Alec looks around for a semblance of a clock – since he can’t tell the time of day using the sun the way he can back in his village. “What time is it?” he asks.  
  
“Still night time”.

“Then how long have I been here?”

“A few hours”.  
  
“Magnus, that’s nonsense. Surely I’ve been here for at least three days now”.  
  
“Still the unbeliever”, Magnus smiles, though it’s tight around the lips. “But, I’m happy you already feel such a strong attachment to this place – and hopefully even stronger to me”. The last bit, he mumbles. A faint whisper, almost.  
  
Feeling his whole face starting to heat, Alec averts his eyes but can’t hide the smile creeping up lips and to the corner of his eyes.  
  
“But like I’ve said, Alexander, the concept of time is null here. The excruciating slowness gradually eats you and drives you insane - so just waiting for the next full moon always seems like waiting for eternity itself”. He then settles himself on his right elbow and properly studies Alec from head to toe before steadying his eyes on him in all seriousness. “Alexander, how do I make you feel?” But when Alec opens his mouth and realises that no words are coming out, simply because his brain is a mess and he really can’t properly think, Magnus only sits upright with a soft genuine smile, his eyes never leaving Alec’s face as he says, “just so you know, it would be nice if you could stay. Yes. I would love that very much - just so you know”.  
  
Alec doesn’t even blink. If anything, his eyes never leaves Magnus’s – for as astounding as Magnus’s confession is, it's not entirely unexpected. After all, long before their first kiss, Alec had already detected the sweetness the werecat has for him – a sweetness in the way he teases Alec but also smiles tenderly at him – and then those eyes, the eyes Magnus gives him, they beg but never pressure for anything, but ultimately, any man that had Alec's once quiet and well-behaved heart suddenly starting to jump about and feel things, good things it had never felt before, must be a good man – and so, all these elate Alec and makes him relieved that perhaps too, this magic in his chest, is the same magic Magnus feels for him.  
  
But it’s still too soon for Alec to properly put this sweet magic into words.  
  
“Hand me that ring”, Magnus points to a table near to where Alec is sitting.  
  
Alec fetches the ring without giving it much thought. He does give it a good look over, though. It’s mostly plain and of genuine silver with a tiny stone shining the colour of Magnus’s werecat eyes.  
  
“Wear it”, Magnus tells him.  
  
Alec is confused, looking from Magnus to the ring and back to Magnus, his mouth half open trying to find words.  
  
“Hopefully, it will do something marvellous when the time is right”, Magnus hardly explains. “All you have to do is to trust it and believe in what you feel and what you think I feel”.  
  
Alec spins the ring around in his hand. “There you go again being cryptic”.  
  
“I’m not being cryptic. When the time comes, you’ll understand”.  
  
Alec frowns, wondering why everything is a riddle.  
  
Though at seeing Alec’s blight, Magnus fondly adds. “It will glow whenever I’m near and will guide you to me”.  
  
 Alec slips the ring down his fourth finger.  
  
.

.

.  
  
It’s a cloudless sky. The moon has already passed its midnight apex and is well on its way to burn and fade into nothingness once the sun starts to rise in the farthest east of the sky.  
  
“I can find my way from here”.  
  
“I’m leaving you where I found you”, Magnus tells him. “Besides, might as well I take a walk while I still can. There won’t be another full moon until another twelve months”.  
  
As those words leave Magnus’s mouth, Alec feels himself having a silent panic attack. His eyes widen in the dark, fretful at how long he would need to wait before he meets with Magnus again and learn more about him and play with him and… kiss him again. Long days in waiting stretch ahead of him. "There’s a full moon at least once a month”, he tries to comfort them both.  
  
But Magnus shows a bitter smile. “What feels like a month to you, feels like a year to me or even longer. It’s the nothingness here. The imprisonment. Or perhaps, it’s both”. Hearing that breaks Alec’s heart all over again.

.

.

.

Somewhere along the path leading to the barrier where they’ll exchange goodbyes, Alec’s fingers are flexing betwixt Magnus’s.  
  
The place is almost silent save for the soft whisper of the wind between trees and the faint sound of Chairman scampering behind them. Yet, mind and body, Alec feels this connection between them. Soundlessly, they belay a silent understanding of their mutual craving.  
  
Not far in the distance, the first light from the village is seen. Magnus stops in his stride and nudges Alec.  
  
“Go on. You should be fine now”.  
  
Indeed, Alec thinks he should be fine. But on the contrary, when his eyes meet Magnus’s bewildered stare, a strong pain of loneliness pulls at his heartstrings – and so he silently wishes for another full moon tomorrow.

He also wishes he could have done something more for Magnus. He'll have to find a way to help by the next time they meet---- which reminds him of the one question with the dodgiest answer. He can never get a straightforward reply.  
  
“Won’t you tell me how the curse is broken?” he makes another attempt.  
  
Magnus laughs in that ever pleasant voice of his, a hearty chuckle but somewhere along its way, it ends in a heartbreak.  
  
“That ring is important to me”, he remarks instead. “If you still have it the next time we meet, then by then you would have already gotten your answer”.  
  
Alec frowns, his lips puckering. “How can you be so sure we’ll meet again?” he dares to ask. But he immediately regrets it when Magnus frankly replies with. “If that turns out to be the case, then it will matter not how to break the curse”.  
  
Alec wrinkles his nose in displeasure, and starts walking towards the village barrier when at last minute, Magnus calls out to him.  
  
“Alexander, come find me”, his desperation thick in his voice. “Even if a decade passes, come find me. I’ll be waiting”.  
  
Alec looks at him confused, keeping at bay an uneasiness that’s slowly rising. But he grins his most fascinated grin and replies, “don’t be so dramatic. One month or a year as you put it, is hardly a decade. So just wait for me like a good kitten”, and he’s smiling, though what he truly desires is to run back and cling to Magnus and at least leaves him with a kiss. “I’ll definitely be back. I'll check on my mother and then I will come back”, Alec reassures him. “At the next full moon, I’ll be waiting outside for you so don’t forget me, promise?”.  
  
Magnus smiles warmly upon him. “How can I forget someone who’s more afraid of a toad than of a centuries old werecat?”

Alec laughs promising himself to cherish all these memories till he and Magnus meet again. But as soon as Alec walks away and gets closer to the village barrier, Magnus's smile is slowly replaced by a painful and tight grimace.  
  
At 4 a.m., the forest silences as if it’s holding its breath as Magnus watches Alec completely cross the village barrier, and is looking about confused like he's missing something.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Chairman asks, watching Alec’s fading silhouette.  
  
Averting his eyes from Alec who’s then running like a madman towards the village, Magnus looks to the sky with eyes changing into yellow and his whole body transforming. Cracking bones break in the still night, and in a loud wail he races against the wind that's beating strong against him. Like an animal being hunted, he runs and runs until he’s back in the confines of Asik where he sits and painfully watches Alec’s world slowly, and spitefully seals off from his.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Chairman questions once more, because Chairman was there that time Magnus and Alec met and fell in love under the moon – a love that neither of them understood nor saw coming. But Chairman has been witnessing everything since then.  
  
Back in the figure of a human, Magnus is sprawling on his back staring into the mist, and almost soundlessly he replies, “You know why. He has to figure it out himself”.  
  
What Magnus didn’t tell Alec is that;  
  
Once he leaves the cursed cave and crosses the barrier, then at that very moment, the same way he’d seen it happen over and over again - all his memories since the very moment they met - all his adventures in Asik - everything Alec had seen and lived under the azure sparkle and sallow illumination of the cave - everything, everyone – Magnus…  
  
They will all cease to exist leaving nothing, no gaps – not even sepia memories.  
.  
.  
.  
  
Eleven full moons, have already passed since then.

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Kudos/comments are appreciated ^^


	8. haunting dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec is back home and is living the happy village life like he never left...
> 
> Or is he?
> 
> Magnus is never too far away.

**Please tell**  
**me I’m not as**  
**forgettable**  
**as my days**  
**without**  
**you.**

As the story goes, to break the curse, only an old fashion true love’s kiss will do.

A kiss filled with a love so strong that even over time and across realms, each lover will be haunted with an unease that a greater part of them is missing.

Alec has to miss what he has forgotten. This is the riddle he must solve.

That's how the curse will be broken.

That’s how Magnus will be free.

And that’s when Alec can freely be with him.

The only trouble is; Alec can’t miss what he doesn’t remember.

And so, months go by.

Full moons go by.

And during the day, Alec lives happily in his village.

But some nights while he sleeps, there’s a glow of amber in his bedroom.

It flickers like a warm light with each passing full moon. It’s been eleven so far. And even though the ring glows in the dark around his finger, Alec is too deep in sleep to take any inquisitive notice, but the ring still faithfully gleams as though it has its own set of memories.

But hope is not all abandoned.

At the approach of the twelfth full moon, Alec is restlessly twisting and turning under his covers, dreaming of a land with majestic waterfalls and where the sky seems as though it's being pushed underground – a land in a dream where everything is bathe in yellow.

In the end, however, Alec supposes it might do him good to decline late night heavy suppers before bed.

And so, he continues to play around with his friends and at his age, his mother has him attending matchmaking rituals in the village. Out of tradition and duty, Alec does turn up at a few but most times when no one is looking, he would sneak away and would later find himself looking up at the moon with a sort of inexplicable melancholy - like something stubbornly sticking at the tip of one’s tongue.

Sometimes, he dreams of a great black panther by his window. It’s always the same panther with eyes big and sad more than they’re dangerous. Eyes that do nothing but stare at Alec – the panther makes no sound. It never advances. It just stares and stares as though waiting – then it would turn and disappear behind the thick foliage when the moon starts to sink away.

And by the next morning, Alec only has what feels like a dream within a dream – fragments of images that he dismisses as being mere idiotic scheming being done by his idle brain.

But then he starts to have these dreams more often than they have ever been. And bit by bit even on sunny days when he’s out frivolous at play, amber eyes would suddenly pop before him like hypnosis that suddenly breaks the instant he blinks. And if that isn’t lingering enough then other times, Alec swears he’s being haunted when a kiss he has never had before lingers on his lips and in a deeper forgotten corner of his mind, lips red like berries keep whispering words that are too low for Alec to hear.

And just so, with every passing full moon, the amber in the ring still around his fourth finger glows brighter and brighter.

Another night, Alec dreams of being awaken by a growl, it's tenor is about that of a whisper, just outside his window. Strangely though, he doesn’t feel fear as he unwraps himself from his cover and tiptoes towards the direction of the sound. And it’s then he sees it, this almost gigantic creature of charcoal black coat and profound eyes that set the colour of amber.

Alec stares back in silence, perplexed at the sudden wave of melancholy and somewhere in there, Alec senses fury. Moving a hoof forward, the great creature moves closer towards Alec, causing shivers to run up and down his backbone. But even so, fear is the furthest emotion Alec feels. Instead, he’s shuddering from an unexpected familiarity that sends tingles all over him.

“I’m not afraid of you”, Alec’s voice is steady and just as equally, his eyes never leaves the creature as it advances towards him then stops, just a hand’s reach away. “What do you want? Why are you here? What are you to me?”

The great panther stops, and focuses on the glow around Alec’s finger. Alec too, stares down at his finger in wonder, perplexed and in deep ponder as to what’s happening - looking back from the ring to the panther and back to the ring again. But by the time he looks back up, hoping to meet those mysterious eyes once more, his visitor very swiftly runs away.

.

.

.

“What do you think it means?” he asks his mother, during breakfast. “I keep dreaming of a black panther”.

His mother immediately stops chewing her rice porridge. “Tell me exactly what happens in this dream of yours”.

Alec makes a thinking sound as he scrapes his memory. “That’s just it. Nothing happens. It just stands there outside my window with the same sad look like it’s waiting”.

His mother sighs, worry creasing her forehead.

“I see”, she murmurs. “It’s happening again”.

“What’s happening again?”

Taking up her enamel cup of tea she recalls, “not very long after that time you crossed the barrier, that time I sent you to fetch me some herbs, the next morning you were late for breakfast so I came to check on you”.

“And?”

“You were talking in your sleep - having this strange conversation. It was mostly in gibberish but you kept going on and on about werecats and a curse and having to do something”.

Alec frowns, “sounds like a nightmare. Maybe it’s good I don’t remember such a thing”.

She pauses a while before saying, “Yes. To tell the truth, it was frightening so I hurriedly woke you. Thankfully, since then, I haven’t heard you mention anything about it until now”. She then gently places the enamel cup on the table and is now looking at Alec as though to caution. “That’s also when I noticed that ring on your finger – a few nights after that I came to check on you while you were sleeping, and it was glowing a wild yellow. Where did you get it?”

Alec pensively stares at the jewellry. “I don’t know. Maybe someone gave it to me”.

“A friend?”

“Perhaps”.

She sighs. Worry evident in her eyes and in her voice. “I don’t think it’s that easy to forget something like this, Alec. And if it’s that meaningless to you then why do you always wear it?”

Alec twirls the ring around his finger. “I honestly don’t know”, he says, the ring reflecting in his eyes like a snap of hypnosis. “I don’t know and I can’t explain it but, it feels like I’ve forgotten something, mum. Something or someone, important – is missing”.

“And what makes you think so?”

Alec is still staring at the ring. Logically, he really doesn’t have good reasons to think there’s a void in him. “I don’t know but…”

“But?”

“His eyes looked warm”.

“Whose?”

“The black panther’s”

.

.

.

At midnight, the moon sets against the backdrop of Alec’s window sill. Like a new habit, just before bed, he finds himself staring with intrigue at the sallow moon high in the sky. What is it about this moon? The shape? The colour? The way it makes the rest of the world dark in comparison? Whatever it is, it again gives him that familiarity with a clarity that just won’t register. But even so, a peculiar yet pleasant nostalgia dips deep into his consciousness – a sweet nostalgia of moist warm lips pressing against his own. It’s like a most precious feeling as he inhales the night wind and exhales with a smile around his mouth and glistening in his eyes.

Just then, the ring around his finger starts to glow the brightest of bright. He gasps at the suddenness then startles at the sound of a soft growl nearing him. Suddenly on alert looking through his window and into the dark, a pair of amber eyes meets his. Alec’s breath catches in his throat and he finds it hard to breathe – staring and wondering what in heaven’s name could be lurking this close to him - until the panther steps out from the shadows and shows itself. Alec gasps then tries to swallow because since long ago, he’s always been the unbeliever thinking what he’s seeing is just a figment of his imagination – so he rubs his eyes and opens them back, and just like that, he finds himself alone again. But his heart is beating fast and he’s annoyed at not knowing why he’s suddenly feeling agitated and heavier with the feeling of a greater happiness missing.

Looking back up at the moon, it might be about half past midnight when Alec startles at the sound of loud echoing shouts, and the clamouring of metals in the direction of the main village square. Looking through the window, he sees torches and mobs of village folks making their way into the forest.

Hastily, he runs to the other room to fetch his mother, and he’s horrified to find her missing and the front door to the cottage wide open and swinging with squeaks as though left open in a rush. He doesn’t have far to look however, when she calls, “Alec”, and is rushing to meet him.

Sighing hard with relief, he asks, “what’s happening? Where’s everyone going? What are they doing?”

“They caught it”, she informs him. And Alec is not sure if she’s excited or afraid. “Mayhap it’s that same black panther you’ve been dreaming about. Folks have seen it wandering about the village like it’s searching or as you say, waiting. Concerned, the men of the village secretly launched an attack earlier and they are now chasing it - hunting it down”.

Alec swallows, his breathing suddenly becoming very difficult.

“Exactly where are they headed now?” his voice frantic and his whole existence suddenly becoming a blur – and he doesn’t even know what has gotten into him but he knows, he must go----

“They are luring it to the big old cotton tree”, she answers, “the same one, long before you or even I was born, bear witness to a young maiden from the village who perished for keeping secret and protecting her child who was fathered by a demi-god leopard – those stories of werecats you’ve been hearing from a child growing up”.

‘ _Demi-gods… werecats’,_ Alec mimes as he searches for reasons as to why the story sounds so oddly familiar.

“It’s been centuries since Seelie, a witch of that time, had supposedly ended them. But with those yellow eyes and its unnatural size – there’s no doubt, that thing is not of this world. Something must have happened - there must have been a trigger that somehow woke their spirit and they've now returned to seek revenge”.

Alec isn’t sure why but all the blood in his veins instantly start to flow cold and he finds himself frightened, his heart is throbbing madly as if it’s about to burst like a balloon with too much air. He’s staggering, feeling nauseous and gasping hard with his right hand over his chest.

“Alec dear, what’s wrong?”

“Mother, I need to see this black panther”, he exclaims, his voice shaking.

She looks at him with worry, “you don’t have to, dear. There are more than enough abled men to kill it”.

At the word kill, Alec lifts his long legs and is already racing out the cottage door and down the village track. Deaf to his mother’s shouts, he jumps over barrels and haystacks as if he’s a man in pursuit of the missing part of him – the closer he gets, the ring glows a burnt yellow and starts to feel hotter around his finger.

 _Come find me -_ yearns a voice from a distant memory.

The faster he goes down the pebble track of the village, the ring burns and shines all the more. In the crisp of the night, the strong smell of greenery from the sap of broken twigs burns his nose, his ear drums wildly ring as crickets creak in chaos and owls hoot in a horrifying pandemonium. Madly, he dashes down the path in the direction of distant noises and the glow of burning lights.

And just like that, sweat breaks across his forehead when like the broken walls of a dam, memories in the colours of sepia and rainbow flood him in a gush.

With tears overflowing, Alec runs with all his might all the while chanting a whispered prayer to the wind to carry him faster.

_I’ll be waiting. Even if a decade passes, come find me._

And so, squashing overripe and rotten berries under his trampling feet and wincing at how their usually sweet smell now reeks and is turning his stomach with fear and misery, Alec runs harder and faster because the love of his life is waiting on him.

_Alexander, how do I make you feel?_

Alec picks up speed and when the mob of villagers and torches are finally in his view, his heart starts to feel as though it’s about to jump out of his chest when a thunderous wail suddenly cracks through the air and seems to shake the whole place.

“Magnus!” Alec bawls and shouts, running and running and running while chanting a louder prayer to the wind;

**please save Magnus.**

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> kudos /comments are appreciated ^^


	9. sallow moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec rushes to rescue Magnus.

**What the heart**  
**has once known**  
**it shall Never**  
**forget.** _\- anonymous_

Like a man half awaken from his nightmare, stopping for nothing, Alec frantically runs down the path. He runs against the cold wind slapping his face and blowing his teardrops away. After all, he’d made such a lavish promise and yet ended up forgetting Magnus.

His mother’s story all makes sense to him the more he runs towards the torch lights and the vexed voices in the centre of the forest.  
  
Every full moon, Magnus has been coming and waiting on him. Every time Magnus was near, the ring on his finger would glow a brighter shade of yellow – that’s the marvellous thing Magnus had mentioned just before Alec had left Aşık.  
  
Alec rebuked himself for forgetting but he can’t help being angry at Magnus too for keeping such a cruel secret from him. How could Magnus have allowed him to leave knowing he would forget him and everything? Why didn’t Magnus make him stay?  
  
But then Alec ponders his own question: back then, even if Magnus had told him, would he really have stayed? After all, he couldn’t have his mother worry to death about him when he wasn’t even sure about the meaning of the magic in his chest.  
  
For a second, his feet drag a tad slower at his realisation of his use of the past tense – he _wasn’t_ sure _then_. Then, does this mean that he’s now gifted with the love spoken so highly of in fairy tales?  
  
Well, before the night is over – for better or for worst, he’ll surely find out.

But for now, with long hands, he pushes twigs from out of his way – wincing at the pain grappling his heart the moment he dashes past the route he and Magnus had walked that night they said goodbye.  
  
He’s not to be distracted, however, from the fact that as it is, he’s only one person with no battle ability, he has neither a spear nor stones for his defence should the villagers turn on him for protecting who they think is the enemy.  
  
But that’s only part of the trouble with his rescue plan – the easier part, he acknowledges, because even if by some miracle they escape the fury of the villagers, it’s 3:30am. Sunrise is about to dawn.  
  
Lost in his dilemma, Alec carelessly gets lashed by a bramble to this face. He’s knocked down and is stretching on his back, writhing in pain with blood like teardrops, trickling down his face from the shallow cuts - the voices of the villagers are closer and more furious, but beyond that, he hears the low growling of the panther.  
  
“Magnus”, he murmurs, feeling warm drops of blood dribbling down his face and into his mouth. He’s falling dizzy but, being determined to keep a promise and return to Magnus, he fights the growing throb in his head. “I have to get to him”.

It’s then, like his prayers earlier made to the wind are being answered.  
  
“What took you so long, you stupid weak human?”, a voice loud in his ears and which is followed by the clapping of wings.  
  
Alec never dreams the day would come when he would be happy to see the menacing----  
  
“Chairman! Izzy!”, he gasps, his vigour returning.  
  
With utter vexation, Chairman’s rants. “Eleven full moons! That’s how long Magnus has been coming here and waiting for you”.  
  
“Magnus! They’re hunting Magnus”, Alec starts to cry from the pain in his face and the pain in his heart, desperation and his helplessness thick in his voice.  
  
“Don’t you think I know that?!”, Chairman snaps. “Why does it have to be you, um? After all this time, why is it you? I swear, once Magnus is safe, I’ll beat your ass”.  
  
“Now is not the time for fights”, Izzy exclaims. “He’s already captured, meaning we have to somehow sneak in and grab him fast before the sun comes up”. She then directs her attention to Alec. “But first, let me heal you. You’ll need your strength and so will Magnus”.  
  
She then raises her wand that suddenly transforms into a whip as it connects with Alec’s skin - and with the chant of a hymn, sparks of emerald light fall softly against Alec’s injury.  
  
“So, here’s the plan”, Chairman says. “Alec, find a way to distract these monsters you call humans”.

Alec nods with urgency. "Then what happens while I distract them?”.

“My magic doesn’t work on inanimate things so Chairman and I will need to hide and untie the rope. Then at the right moment, I’ll use fairy magic to transform Magnus back into human form. It will be easier to grab him and escape”.

“But why can’t he transform by himself?”

Izzy’s eyes are clouded over with worry. “On full moons, werecats are free to roam about but it takes a lot of power to keep human form during that time. But after living for so long under this curse, Magnus became able to control if and when he transforms but ever since you left, more and more he started losing control”.

“He became unstable?”

“Yes”, Chairman answers. “Trapped in Aşık then becoming too attached to you then you forgetting him for all this time was bound to put an emotional strain on him. He invited you to stay but you left and almost suddenly forgot about him”.  Chairman’s voice then drops in earnestness. “Alec… this time, please save Magnus”.

Alec feels his heart crying even as he replies. “That has always been my plan".

And it’s with regret and his need to do good on the promise he made, that Alec pushes through the angry crowd still engrossed in their plot to kill. They rally around the cotton tree with spears, torches and machete waving around in their hands. Magnus is tied to the tree around his neck and his belly, his feet are bound. Even under the dim lighting, Alec can see the amber eyes glossed over with pain emphasised by hoarse howls. Alec’s heart breaks a thousand times in a single second.  
  
Running in with all he has, Alec shouts. “Stop!” pushing his way between Magnus and the angry villagers – his heart beating so fast he worries it might jump through his mouth.  
  
“Alec!”, one villager, a friend he’s played with shouts. "That’s the ripper beast you’re standing in front of. Get away from there”.  

“No! He’s neither a ripper nor a beast and I will not leave him”.

The flickering torch lights cast layers of light and shadow on the villagers whose faces are twisted with hate, fear and confusion and while Alec understands them, at all cost – his life included – this time, he vows to protect Magnus.

“You won’t hurt him again”.

“Then it’s kill or be killed”, another villager answers as a group of them closes in on them.  
  
Alec was never a village hero but just as equally, he was never the village coward. If there’s one thing he’s always been sure about it’s that he stands up for what he believes in… even if he’s alone. Outnumbered, he intends to protect Magnus. “You say for weeks he’s been lurking around, and yet not a soul has been hurt. So how can you say he’s dangerous?”  
  
“The beast is smart, Alec. It’s biding its time until it’s ready to be the damn of us all”.  
  
“No! He won’t”, Alec pleas in all earnestness. “Magnus would never hurt a soul. As a matter of fact, he has no interest in you”.  
  
“Don’t be a Fool”, exclaims a man wielding a pickaxe and is pushing forward with the mob. “I’ve heard stories of these beasts wielding blue magic to befriend humans and then deceive them. My dear boy, you’re talking like you’ve already been bewitched by their dark magic”.  
  
“No. I’m not. Listen to me. He will not hurt you”.  
  
“Move out the way boy, no good can come from keeping this thing alive”.  
  
“Bring the kerosene”, someone demands. “This time, we’ll succeed where Seelie failed – we’ll burn the beast to ash and may our very own eyes bear witness”.  
  
And before Alec can further retaliate, a perfect circle – the centre of which Alec stands and is staking his life to protect Magnus - the villagers wet the earth around them with kerosene oil.  
  
His friend advances in another plea. “Alec, if you don’t leave that beast alone and come over here, then we’ll have no choice but to burn you too”.  
  
The kerosene strongly rides the wind and stuffs its rancidness into Alec’s nose. The heat from the torches are already hot and try as he might to push away thoughts of what that fire would do to his naked skin, the supposed pain was unimaginable – and then, flashes of his mother appear to him – _she’ll weep_ – _mother will weep, but I can’t leave Magnus again_ – I’ll never leave him again.  
  
In a blink, a perfect ring of fire surrounds them.

Fear numbs all of Alec’s senses as he backs closer to Magnus, still prepared to protect him. All around him the night slowly becomes deafening and all he can compute is the angry villagers shouting in anger and then cheering with victory – eyes raging mad like the fire that’s growing higher and blooming hot orange and closing in on them. The earth around them becomes parched with the sounds of shrubs and twigs crackling and burning - the smoke thickening and becoming suffocating.  
  
At that point, Magnus moans again – very much conscious of what’s happening.  
  
“Get ready”, Chairman shouts, him and Izzy barely making it in time.  
  
At last, the ropes fall away from the grandiose body of Magnus in panther form, but just before he hits ground, he’s wondrously transformed into his human form and is secured softly in Alec’s arms.  
  
The villagers hush in awe.

There are legends, stories over the centuries and decades, but it’s the first time for everyone under the cotton tree to have witness such magic - the moment when a legend becomes real.  
  
But such awe lasts for only a moment before they begin to pelt sticks and stones shouting, “Abomination”, and “Die” and “the world is ending”, aggressively backing Alec with Magnus against the trunk of the tree by pelting at them blazing torches.  
  
The heat is suffocating and Alec laments as he wraps his wool cloth around Magnus and heaps him further into his arms. “Izzy”, he yells, “What now?”

“Naturally, now we escape. Lift him and get ready”.  
  
“But we’re surrounded. I can’t just jump over or through this fire and run through this many people”.  
  
“You won’t need to”, she replies, pushing two fingers in her mouth, and in a long breath she whistles three times at equal intervals – her eyes keen into the far sky.  
  
Everything is pitch-black even as Alec follows her gaze. Nothing is happening and Alec is growing even more mortified, when all of a sudden, a burst of colourful lights pierce through the darkness along with the huffing noise of Rainbow.  
  
Everything ceases. Everyone is enamoured. Even Alec is taken back to his time in the cave.  
  
“You and Magnus get on and hold on tightly”, Chairman shouts as he too secures himself hanging to Rainbow’s horn.  
  
In a quick but careful movement, Alec heaves Magnus onto the unicorn. And just like that, Rainbow beautifully canters and up, up and away he rises into the sky and fantastically seeming to disappear, bewitching everyone who stares long after in wonder.  
  
But even with their easy floating in the sky, their nightmare is far from over.  
  
“It’s almost sunrise”, Chairman worries. “We’ll never make it back to Aşık in time”. He turns to Alec with all hope. “This is where you truly come in”.  
  
“But what should I do?”, Alec asks bewildered, watching the sallow moon slowly drifting from the night sky.  
  
Unusual to her sweet temperament, Izzy shouts, “Alec! Think! You’ve already figured it out!”  
  
But Alec is beyond himself. Time is hunting them and even with Rainbow’s quick flight, it’s no match for the speed of light. He swallows, gasping hard, Magnus growing cold against him, growing weaker by the second.  Izzy was able to heal him just a bit, but in their great hurry to beat the rising sun, a complete healing can’t be done.

And even if she does heal him, the sun----  
  
Magnus shuffles against Alec, his eyes very slowly break open and is looking into Alec’s dilated pupils that are brewing with fear. A chill of relief runs down Alec’s backbone, his fingers dotingly moving in Magnus’s hair - his heart throbs so madly that he’s sure even the weaken Magnus can hear it.  
  
“See, I came back”, he whispers to Magnus, pressing his forehead against Magnus’s temple.  
  
“Yes, you came back”, Magnus barely mumbles, his eyelids dropping heavy from exhaustion and feebleness. “But you came back to see me die”.  
  
“Nonsense”, Alec exclaims – tears brimming over like waterfalls damping Magnus’s face. “Izzy will heal you once we reach Aşık”.  
  
Magnus smiles – but the way his lips barely move and his eyes droop, comes off as a final farewell, and all the more so when he asks in a broken voice – one last shred of hope. “Alexander, how do I make you feel?”

The first orange ray of a new day hits the tip of tree tops and the high mountains signaling the passing of the twelfth full moon – Magnus’s birthday, one year since they had crossed path. It’s now a new day – one Alec can’t see because his eyes are tightly closed with Magnus stiffening in his arms-----

With the gathering of dawn, a ring of poisonous purple light rises in the atmosphere like ripples of a horrendous storm. It stretches from the far reaches of Alec’s village and all the way back to the high rocks and pools at the cave’s entrance. The world then gently turns. There’s no sound. Everything blasts in the stillness of the light, even the wind seems frozen. There’s nothing, nothing except the gentle thud of Rainbow’s legs as he slowly descends at the doorway of Aşık.  
  
Then in a slow breath, the morning sun gleams a bright yellow in the eastern sky. The wind once again begins to blow in a summery gust and a never-ending cloudless blue appears above them – then everything starts to move again in sounds and an unnatural slowness as if allowing time to properly reset itself.  
  
But even more than that;  
  
Down below the all blue of the morning, at that very moment the sun had made a golden halo in the sky… just before the sun rays could even hit the tip of Magnus’s hair, Alec had him enwrapped in his arms and in a fast relishing - he’d pinned his lips over Magnus’s mouth – not like previous times when their love was frail and unsure – this kiss, although impatient, it’s sweet and needy and powerful and true with the way Alec’s tongue swept and continues to sweep over Magnus’s own – each breath they take between locking lips seem to breathe new life into the blue and sunlit atmosphere.

For as it were;

On this new day, in a quiet tenderness, at last Alec answers by half pressing his lips against Magnus’s forehead and whispers in sweet victory. “I don’t want to live without you ever again”.

Magnus weeps.

At long last,

The curse is broken.

But;

their story doesn’t yet end.

_\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> kudos /comments are appreciated ^^


	10. picnic under the moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus are together at last. However, Alec is still human and Magnus, while he's not immortal, he will pretty much live for very very very long.
> 
> A sort of epilogue with some new adventures for Alec.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've reached this far, Thank you ^^

°

 **Here comes**  
**the sun**  
**and I say,**  
**it's alright.** _\- The Beatles_

Magnus weeps.

At long last, he’s found love and love has finally found him too.

His Love is tall with thick black hair and rainbow coloured eyes and had kissed him deeply and saved him from the wickedly layered curse.

Chairman is so glad that he jumps from Rainbow and onto Alec’s shoulder with a grin wider than Chester Cat’s, “Alec, you’re useful after all”.

Alec looks him over sideways and rolls his eyes. “Get your dirty paws off me”, but he’s smiling even as he says this.

“You did it, Alec”, Izzy comes to hug him. She’s back to her human size, tears rolling down her cheeks even as she laughs wholeheartedly.

“Does this mean we’re soulmates now?” Magnus asks, while having his tears wiped away by Alec’s thumb and even without Izzy’s help, he’s already self-healing.

“Does being soulmates mean that from now on we’ll be together forever?”

“Almost forever”, Magnus answers, his smile soft and sweet and relieved. “But even if not forever, then we’ll be together for a very long time, I hope”.

Alec hugs Magnus’s head that’s still in his lap very tightly, his eyes a conflict of melancholy and hope. “Too bad humans don’t live very long”.

.

.

.

Time comes and goes and like a perfect fever, Alec and Magnus’s love burn hot and wild for each other.

It’s near eleven years since the curse has been broken allowing Magnus to enter and leave Aşık as he wishes, taking the pleasure of watching sunrise with Alec - a feat that for years pile upon years was such a distant dream – now, it’s a luxury that has become ordinary.

Magnus doesn’t leave the cave however, nor does he intend to.  
  
“It’s my home”, he tells Alec. “It’s still its own kind of beauty and it's all I know. Besides, now I can go and come as I please”.  
  
Alec nods in understanding. Magnus is attached to Aşık the same way he’s attached to his mother who’s growing old and frail over the years.  
  
Alec can hardly believe that she’s already fifty-five years.  
  
“Don’t you ever get tired of it?” she asks him one night as he prepares to go to Aşık.  
  
That’s how things have been since that night. Daytime, he spends at home with his ageing mother and nighttime at home with Magnus.  The two people he loves more than anything in the vast world and wishes he could be with them at the same time day and night - but that's another story - after that night, Alec is still trying to make peace with the villagers.  
  
“I may just die if I can’t see the both of you”, he replies.  
  
She smiles at him, brushing her frail and veiny hands against his right cheek, “the day is near, sweetheart. But at least you’ve found a longer, lasting love than I can give you.”  
  
Alec smiles into her palms. “My love for you is as lasting as the moon and besides, you’ve many more years left in you”.  
  
She kisses his cheeks, one peck on each side, “for the quiet and timid child you were, you do love wildly, don’t you?”  
  
He chuckles with a, “good night, mum” and following the moon shine, he makes his way home back to where Magnus waits for him.  
  
.

.

.  
  
Alec lives a strange life, he feels. Living in two worlds: one that breathes the wonders of magic and a never-ending wildness of time well spent with the love of his life; and the other world, the one more human in which he spends quiet days with his seventy years old mother.  
  
“Have my eyes gone this bad, my dear?” she asks him one evening as they sit chatting by the kitchen window with her going to and fro in her rocking chair.  
  
Alec stiffens when she stretches over with much difficulty and gently runs her hands along his face, “because dear, you haven’t aged for the past twenty-odd years”.  
  
But he soon regains his composure as he fondly remembers that day when time stopped or rather, time tremendously slowed for him.  
  
One day, some years after the cotton tree scare, he asked Magnus, “doesn’t it bother you that very soon I’ll grow old while you remain young, ageing slowly for hundreds of years to come?”  
  
Magnus had looked at him in deep thought as if it was nothing he hadn’t considered.  
  
“You’re a werepanther”, Alec persisted when he got no reply, “and I’m just an ordinary human. I’ll wrinkle and die of heart failure in the next fifty years. But you, you’ll… what do I need to do to stay as long as  _almost forever_  is, with you?”  
  
Magnus had kept quiet for a while twirling the amber stone ring around his finger, looking somewhere so far away that Alec was tempted to shout to get back his attention, but he impatiently waited instead.  
  
“Slow ageing is not all that glamorous”, Magnus starts. “Times change and people change and you’ll find yourself always needing to adjust to the newness”.    
  
Alec had sighed, “I don’t care about glamour or other people. I just want to be with you as long as possible”.  
  
He didn’t miss the subtle way in which Magnus’s eyes widened as though surprised at the frank confession. In spite of everything that had happened leading all the way up to that golden morning when they saved each other, Alec sensed that Magnus still harboured the fear that one day he’ll be left alone again - it’s like breaking the curse was everything, but not enough.  
  
So one day while chatting in the grand chamber, Alec stepped away from the chamber balcony, ambled over to Magnus and took his hands and proclaimed a love that was crystal clear as spring water.  
  
“Magnus, I want to live as long as you live. That’s how much I want you. That’s how much I don’t want to live without you”.  
  
Magnus’s eyes had flickered a warm yellow with his lips stretched in the grandest of smiles. He then pulled Alec to rest against him and pressed their chests together into warmth.  
  
Alec breathed in, and when he breathed out, their lips were locked in a greedy yet complacent kiss as if they had just promised their own version of  _forever_  to each other.  
  
“I want to keep you with me, always”, Magnus replied.  
  
And just so;

One day, by the cascading green waterfall, Magnus, assisted by Izzy, Maia, Catarina and Rainbow’s kindness, had performed the ritual with plenty of fairy dust, unicorn magic, Heka, the chanting of ancient hymns and drops of peacock blue.  
  
Alec can’t fly, nor can he do magic, but time tremendously slowed for him. Near thirty years later, he still looks like his young self who ran into Magnus that very first time in the forest.  Forever is still too long to count and keep track of but, at least, he’ll stay a very long time with Magnus.  
  
“I’m just wickedly handsome”, he jokes with his reply to his mother, smiling at her in the freshness of his youth.  
  
A few years later, Alec is having what would be his last conversation with his mother. She’s frail on her bed, all ready to return to the earth.  
  
“Now, you never have to leave him. I wish I had met him,” she says. “Though, I don’t have to meet him to know he loves you and equally, he satisfies everything you’ve ever been curious about beyond the barrier.  You do love wildly my son. I’ll be watching you from above”.  
  
At midday one day, Alec’s mother reaches the end of her charming life while resting her head in his lap.  She passes away with a smile on her mouth and her eyes closed in serenity. But Alec couldn't stop his tears from falling, though he's glad to have been around at her final hour.  
  
Laying the headstone to his mother’s grave, Alec meets up with Magnus who waits for him under the old cotton tree. Holding Magnus’s right arm that reaches for him, just so, Alec leaves the village forever.  They spend the rest of their lives living in Aşık having birthday parties after birthday parties within the high azure walls and ceilings of Ama no Iwato which became even more like a piece of heaven in a cave.  
  
.

.

.

And so the decades pass.

Many decades later on a full moon, villagers gather around a bonfire telling stories of the great black panther who captured the heart of a human on a silver night. Though when it suits, they also tell tales of a werepanther that captures naughty children who venture too far from home. The werepanther, would then carry them to his mysterious mansion where his cook, once human, would spice children with peppers and cloves and prepare them for the panther and his werecat friends and fairies to eat at picnics under the moon.  
  
And so each time the howling and the growling and the rare sightings resonates just beyond the village stone barrier on full moons, village children would run inside their cottages and shut their doors, wildly imagining the legendary werepanther with his cook riding on his back, brandishing a sharpen and bloody machete searching for young children for their night’s dinner.

But like a fairy tale, there are also those who wish for an eternal and magical love as theirs.  
  
“How do you feel about me?” Alec asks out of the blue while sipping on warm rice wine.  
  
The picnic night is warm and fragrant under the moon. They are asprawl on each other under the cotton tree, something about this tree ties them to it.  
  
Magnus looks at Alec like he’s trying to figure out a moving maze on his face before he replies, “it’s been decades and you’re just asking that?”  
  
“Decades, now, or a century later doesn’t matter”.  
  
Magnus sighs and braces back on his elbows, his eyes flickering between a calm brown and a warm yellow like the first light of the morning sun. “My love for you is as strong as yours is for me”.  
  
Alec chuckles. “What kind of love is that? What if one day I stop loving you?”  
  
“Then you’ll immediately dry up and turn to dust”.  
  
Alec gasps and Magnus heartily laughs, pleased with his teasing.  “All I’m saying is that, my love is only as strong as you love me. Meaning, your love is a like a necessity for me. So love me well, Alexander”.  
  
Alec inhales, sighs and silently rests his head against Magnus’s shoulder blade - and with all the magic, love and happiness in him, he glows under the silver light, glowing rosé with Magnus pressing warm against him.  
  
“In a hundred years”, Alec says, “I want to do this again – berry picnic and kisses under the moon with you”.  
  
Magnus kisses his neck.

All around them, the sweet earthen smell of ripen fruits, breathing trees, meadowsweet and wild lilies flair the wild perfection of an enchanted forest. Magnus tilts his head back and damps a kiss to Alec’s jaw before letting his head fall and his lips to touch the corner of Alec’s mouth in another embellished kiss as he whispers, “and hundred years after that... and after that... and after that also...”.  
  
And so, all the night stretches before them, and before they know it, it’s the rising sun of warmth and yellow and the pleasant fragrance of morning dew and flowers.

Magnus inhales, exhales and kisses his lover again and again.

The feel and light of the sun is great but;

The full moon will always be his and Alec’s charmed destiny.

  _\---_

_magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Translated from Japanese, Ama no Iwata means ‘Heavenly Rock Cave’.
> 
> \- Aşık actually means ‘love’ in Turkish.
> 
> \- Cotton trees are believed to hold the souls of the departed. The Mayans believed them to be sacred extending their roots to the underworld and its branches to the heavens. Sacrifices were also often made under silk cotton trees.
> 
> \- I hope you enjoyed the story!
> 
> \- Kudos/feedback are greatly appreciated ^^


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